Striking doctors have vowed to press on with their job
boycott despite pleas by President Emmerson Mnangagwa for them to return to
work amid revelations that scores of people could be dying in their homes due
to lack of medical care.
Mnangagwa pleaded with senior doctors to abandon the strike
that began last week during an address at the burial of Agriculture minister
Perrance Shiri at the Heroes Acre on Friday.
The doctors joined nurses and other health workers, who
have been on strike for over a month, as they demanded salaries in foreign
currency and provision of personal protective equipment (PPE)to deal with
Covid-19 cases.
Norman Matara, the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights
secretary-general, said the government should first pay health workers a living
wage, provide adequate PPEs and equip hospitals with medicines and equipment to
end the strikes.
“The government should simply meet its end of the bargain,
pay health workers a living wage, provide them with adequate personal
protective equipment, and equip hospitals with medicines and equipment,” Matara
said.
“If they do this simple task, health workers will happily return
to work and do their job of saving lives.”
“The government wants health workers to act “in the
nation’s interest and exhibit a sense of responsibility’, yet the same
government is not meeting its end of responsibilities.”
“Health workers cannot work on empty stomachs and without
protective clothing simply because they save lives.”
Enock Dongo, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association president,
said Mnangagwa should ensure the government addressed health workers’
grievances if he expected them to return to work.
“We heard what the president said, but we also want him to
hear and listen to what we are saying. First, he must respect our work and we will also do our
part,” Dongo said.
“We want the president to look into our issues. If he
acknowledges our issues which are genuine, then he must address them.
“No way can we go into such a dangerous environment without
wearing protective gear in the name of national interests, that will not work.”
“Right, now many nurses are being evicted from their
lodgings because they failed to raise rentals, which are now US$40 to US$70,
but salaries are below US$30.
“Even if they say we are not acting in the national
interest, but we have families to look after.”
Public hospitals are turning away sick people, including
those with Covid-19 symptoms, leading to fears that people are dying in their
homes without any treatment. Standard
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